Sports news from Los Angeles and beyond

Kathy Goodman: You gotta have heart

July 4, 2010 | 8:11
am

The Sparks came off a big win on Thursday night against San Antonio
right into their fourth match-up against the best team in the league, the Seattle
Storm.It is hard to argue with the level
of basketball Seattle is playing. They have the best record in the league
because they have earned it — playing consistently good team ball with a core
that has been together for a couple of seasons and some great new additions
this year.Going into the game, I still
felt that if we played our best basketball and they made some mistakes, we could
have things go our way.Although we did
not continue our win streak — Seattle beat us 75-62 — I left the game feeling that
we really competed hard. Seattle just didn’t make enough mistakes.

Undeniably, we started terribly.We could not get the ball in the basket, and Sparks
fans had to stand for a very long time in the first quarter.Coach Jennifer Gillom finally called a timeout after three
scoreless minutes for the Sparks, while we watched Seattle go up 11-0.It still took another minute after that for
the Sparks to make the scoreboard with Tina Thompson free throws, and it wasn’t
until about halfway through the quarter that the Sparks scored their first
field goal of the game.By the end of
the quarter, Seattle was up 27-16, and we knew we had some work to do.

The second quarter was a little bit of a different
story.The Sparks settled down and
played some hard-nosed defense.We had
let Lauren Jackson shoot five for five in the first quarter, but she was held
scoreless in the second. In fact, the entire Seattle starting five was held scoreless.
Our scoring came mostly from Kristi Toliver, but we out-rebounded Seattle and
led them 8-2 in second chance points, as Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton pulled down 3
offensive rebounds.Even though at one
point we let the Storm lead balloon to 16, by halftime we had shaved it back down
to 10.

Our first half was better than the score indicated.We had half as many assists as Seattle but
also fewer turnovers.We were one
rebound short of Seattle’s total but had out-boarded them on the offensive
end.Our shots just were not falling. Toliver was leading all our scorers with 11 from the bench, and Noelle Quinn,
who had been huge for us on the offensive end since Candace went down, was held
scoreless.If we had some luck, and
Seattle was tired, we might be able to make some headway in the second half.

As the third quarter opened, Sparks fans were all wondering the
same thing: Would we be able to cut into the lead, or would we make a fourth-quarter comeback impossible?Right out
of halftime, Lauren Jackson shot a three-pointer, extending their lead back up to
13, but that was as far ahead of us as we would let Seattle get. We spent the quarter chipping away at their
lead, and our field goal percentage was way up.We were a perfect three for three from behind the arc, including one
from Quinn — her sole points in the game.Our team played with heart and kept our fans in the game.With 2:34 left in the period, we had cut
Seattle’s lead to three, and the crowd was on its feet!Some free throws and quick shots, however,
pushed Seattle’s lead back up to seven, leaving them leading 60-53 at the end
of the third.

Last 10 minutes of basketball. We started the fourth
quarter with a shot-clock violation and our first missed free throws of the
game, but then we again went on a scoring run to cut Seattle’s lead to just three points.The arena was on its feet, but
back-to-back three-pointers by Sue Bird and Tanisha Wright ended our celebration. Seattle’s superior depth and experience doomed
us.Tina Thompson recorded her second
double double in a row (11 points and 10 rebounds), Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton
scored her first of the season (10 points and 10 rebounds), and Kristi Toliver
led the team in scoring with 18 points, including four of six from three-point
range.I knew I was supposed to be disappointed
in our loss, but we had four players in double figures and out-rebounded
Seattle on both ends of the floor.I
just couldn’t be disappointed with the effort our team had shown against the
team with the best record in the league.

We have one more game before the All-Star break. If we can show that
much determination on Tuesday night against Phoenix, we will be all right.